The financial news that actually matters
Millions of Americans paid federal tax penalties during the pandemic years without realizing the IRS may not have had the legal authority to charge them. Now, a court ruling and a ticking deadline have created a narrow window to claim that money back. If you were hit with a failure-to-pay penalty on a federal return…
The average cost of filing a federal tax return with commercial software runs between $150 and $250, according to the National Society of Accountants. For roughly 100 million American households, that expense is entirely optional. The IRS has maintained a free electronic filing program since 2003, and for the most recent tax year on record,…
Chase is dangling $3,000 for new Chase Private Client checking customers. Citi’s top-tier offer reaches $2,000. U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, and a handful of regional players are advertising bonuses of $300 to $900 for anyone willing to set up a qualifying direct deposit and keep the account open for a few months. Spring 2026 is…
Roughly 14 million individual taxpayers owed the IRS money after filing their 2024 returns, according to agency data. If you are one of them and you have not arranged a payment plan yet, the cost of waiting is growing every single day. The IRS charges a failure-to-pay penalty of 0.5% of your unpaid balance each…
June 15, 2026, is 21 days away, and for the roughly 64 million Americans who earned freelance or gig income last year, according to a McKinsey estimate, it carries a price tag most of them would rather not think about: the second quarterly estimated tax payment of the year is due. Miss it or come…
Somewhere in the U.S. right now, a warehouse worker, a home health aide, or a couple splitting retail shifts is owed thousands of dollars by the federal government and does not know it. According to the most recent IRS participation data, roughly 19.2 percent of workers eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit did not…
Most married couples filing their 2026 taxes will not itemize deductions. They will not need to dig up charitable receipts, tally property-tax payments, or calculate mortgage interest down to the penny. The reason is a single number: $32,200. That is the new standard deduction the IRS set for married couples filing jointly in tax year…
By the time most Parent PLUS borrowers realize what changed in the reconciliation bill Congress passed this spring, the window to protect themselves will already be closed. Under H.R.1, the Department of Education will stop offering legacy income-driven repayment plans for newly consolidated federal student loans starting July 1, 2026. For the millions of parents…
When the IRS announced automatic pandemic penalty relief on December 19, 2023, through Notice IR-2023-244, the agency said it would return roughly $1 billion to about 4.7 million taxpayers who had been charged late-payment penalties on their 2020 and 2021 federal returns. For millions of people, the credits showed up automatically. But not everyone was…
When the IRS opened its electronic filing system for 2025 tax returns in early 2026, it accepted a deduction that had never existed before: up to $25,000 in qualifying tips, subtracted directly from a worker’s taxable income. A full-time bartender in Las Vegas reporting $22,000 in gratuities could keep roughly $2,600 that would have gone…